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Apple's Wearable Devices To Disrupt (In A Good Way) Life And Health

There's been a lot of talk in the last year about Apple's unicorn iWatch. First, we don't know that it's a watch. If anything, based on what's swirling around the Web, it's more of an iLife device. Not iLife like the suite of Mac and iOS apps but about your life and health in general.

Regardless of whatever you want to call it, when Apple does release it, it will attempt to disrupt a whole new market and quite possibly change the way we live with respect to this device.

And it's not going to the market we think - not the watch industry. Not directly. Devices like the Nike Fuelband or Fitbit's arsenal of pedometers will be impacted but only an ancillary impact or afterthought of this new Apple device.

It may well be the whole healthcare system that Apple is going after. Tackling a whole host of issues and problems all at once.

Hypertension, diabetes, and obesity to name a few. In essence, this iLife device could be a condition-based system to monitor existing conditions like heart disease.

Imagine if the device detects an onset of a life-threatening condition when it detects a change on your heart rate - a heart attack or something. It can call 911 directly or send out an alert to your doctor or someone else. Or if you've fallen and you can't get up, this iLife device could allow you to send an alert regarding your precarious condition.

On another level, it may be a device everyone wears as a part of any preventive care plan to keep diseases and conditions from developing. This is where it would act more like a Fuelband.

Sure, there will be some mobile features like alerts. Even games. Apple will make sure this iLife device is neatly integrated into the whole iOS, app store, and iTunes ecosystem.

Just how much Apple can fit into the iLife device really depends on how ambition it is and what is technically possible at the time of its release. To be sure, it isn't going to be like the so-call smartwatches we now see on the market. Don't expect an app store like what Pebble has. Don't expect it to just offer simplified notes and alerts from your iPhone or iPad like the Galaxy Gear.

In fact, it's best for Apple fans to focus on what Apple's wearable devices are not going to be. From there, the possibilities become endless.

Oh, one more thing. Though it's not a watch, I'm pretty sure it will be able to tell time.